1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a door lock mechanism. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a motor vehicle door lock mechanism including a drive and an operating lever, the drive including a motor and an actuating element.
2. Description of the Related Art
One disadvantage of conventional motor vehicle door locks is that easy manual adjustability of an operating lever associated with the lock is achieved at the cost of comparatively long and thus time-consuming initial free run of an associated actuating element, during unlocking of the door. More specifically, in the motorized shifting of the operating lever, the actuating element (e.g., a journal) must run in a guide tracks: through the widened part of a guide tracks in order to reach a channel-shaped area of the guide tracks so that a corresponding action of force on the operating lever is possible.
Attempts to solve such a problem are known as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,726, incorporated herein by reference, in its entirety. The motor vehicle door lock described therein employs conventional latching elements such as a lock latch and ratchet and a corresponding lock mechanism.
In the conventional motor vehicle door lock described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,726, the drive and actuating element have been constructed so that at least two positions (also, other embodiments show four positions) of the actuating element are equivalent with respect to the action of the actuating element on the operating lever which results in one operating state of the operating lever. The behavior of the actuating element, when placed in, the other(s) of the at least two positions, relative to the operating lever, is identical to the first position.
As a result, a long free run of the actuating element to reach this position (or operating state) is avoided since this the position is repeatedly encountered in view of the symmetrical configuration, over the adjustment range, of the actuating element. It is especially advantageous if the movement of the actuating element out of an initial position ends in another equivalent initial position.
The manual adjustability of the operating lever, especially when encountering a fault, the symmetrical configuration of the actuating element is especially advantageous. In this case the actuating element, in the course of an adjustment motion out of an initial position stops, for example, by the failure of the motor. With the actuating element having a symmetrical configuration, the actuating element can be moved into the “nearest” initial position by manually moving the operating lever.
In the above-described motor vehicle door lock, manual movement of the operating lever from a first operating state into a second operating state and vice versa is possible without moving the actuating element when the actuating element is in the initial position. The actuating element can turn about an axis, and the position of the actuating element is equivalent to the correspondingly turned position.
The actuating element of the motor vehicle door lock has a guide tracks and the operating lever has a journal which fits into the guide tracks. The guide tracks has a number of guide tracks which corresponds to the number of initial positions. Two guide tracks at a time are connected to one another via a short, radially running, transverse section. In the transverse section, the operating lever can be moved manually from the first into the second operating position and vice versa without moving the actuating element. If the drive locks in the position in which the journal is in a quadrant-shaped guide section, it is likewise possible to manually move the operating lever, but more difficult. The journal can continue to move specifically in the guide section as a result of its shape only in one direction. Optionally, the actually desired operating state is only reached via the initially unwanted operating state and subsequent resetting in the radially running transverse section.
The known motor vehicle door lock moreover has an additional structure with a free running element. The free running element is connected to the actuating element by means of a free running connection. In this way it is possible to move the operating lever manually as the actuating element is being moved, although the drive itself is self-locking.